4/2/05 Ft. Point boat sinking Photo Gallery by Chuck Lantz at pbase.com

4/2/05 Ft. Point boat sinking

Final score: Surfers 2 - Sailors 0

Here are the details. A Santana 22' sailboat, "Yachtsea", with two aboard, made a few huge errors as it came under the GG bridge. It tried to sail between the South Tower and the Point, right into the lineup, at the end of low tide, in a big breeze, and big waves. Worse yet, according to a statement made by one of the sailors following the rescue, they were trying to surf the waves. Not a good idea under the circumstances. (Update: According to a comment posted below on 4/10/05 by Dan, the overheard statement "we were trying to surf the waves" may have been a misunderstanding) As these and the linked photos show it didn't quite work out as planned. The stern was caught in a following breaking wave, the bow took a dive, and the boat tripped over the keel. The boat rolled twice, breaking the mast. End of boat. Haruwn, Matt and some others pulled the guys out of the water, and got them to shore on a couple of boards. Krista got some great video of the whole thing, which ran on KRON-TV. There are some shots before and during the rollover by Wayne Lambright at http://sfsurvey.com/photos and some here of the aftermath and rescue. For information regarding the photos in this gallery, contact: chuck@2007ac.com

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yanuar		19-Jun-2008 04:57
i like with photo grafi

Chuck Lantz		11-Apr-2005 15:24
Reply to Capt Luc: The boat was never completely sunk, the bow stayed above water. It was re-floated by a salvor within a few hours of the sinking, using air-bags. On March 10 it was seen at a slip at Gashouse Cove. I'll try to get a photo and post it in the galleries.

LEVY		11-Apr-2005 08:45
Please tell me if this Sail Yacht have sunk, due to the water invading the inside of the boat (the hatches being not shut) ? And has this boat been refloated later ? Thanks - Cap Luc.

Chuck Lantz		10-Apr-2005 11:21
Dan: Thanks for the clarification, and congratulations on your escape from a nasty situation.

Dan		10-Apr-2005 05:47
"Worse yet, according to a statement made by one of the sailors following the rescue, they were trying to surf the waves. Not a good idea under the circumstances." Hi. I was crew on Yachtsea. While I can't really defend the situation, as obviously things ended badly, I don't agree with this statement. We were not "trying to surf". We got in a situation that we didn't expect, and managed to surf one wave. While trying to extricate ourselves from the situation, we were overwhelmed by the second wave. It goes without saying we shouldn't have been in the surf. We were not there on purpose. From the backside of the surf, it looked a lot different. I have sailed near, but not as close to Fort Point before. I have never seen wave as far out as that before. Granted, I only have 1 year experience. Now I know better, and will never sail inside the south tower again, as crew or skipper. Dan

Chuck Lantz		08-Apr-2005 20:41
Reply to KH: With an avoidance of legal nastiness against me in mind, I do tend to agree with you. It looked like a series of bad decisions, from start to finish. There was plenty of breeze, so a "we sailed into a hole" excuse won't work. And it was a clear day, with no ship traffic to avoid at the time. The guy at the helm supposedly had 20 years sailing experience, with most, if not all of it, on the Bay. According to an acquantance of his, he appears to have had a whisker-pole out. With only the two of them on board, they may have simply put themselves into a no-win situation, and beyond the point of making a safe gybe to the other side of the South Tower. Whatever happened, "thinking ahead" appears not to have been on their menu that day.

kh		08-Apr-2005 14:19
No matter how you cut it, this has to be one of the all time klondike moves I have witnessed. It's a stunt of such epic boneheadedness, it's almost hard to decribe without continuously shaking your head in a vain attempt to figure out just what was going on within the skull of this pair. Sadly, I dont see one single correct move, even if surfing these waves on purpose, the only positive being the surfers and the fact that that S22 righted itself (of course, something can be said for the beauty of these images caught on many a camera, both video and still). I am looking for the full story of the thought process. I think it would make a lovely thesis topic... kh http://beneteau235.com

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